I was hopeful Texas would do better. I was hopeful that Tom Herman and his staff would be able to assess their players and put the best on the field in schemes to exploit their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.
Instead it looked like none of the Texas coaches had ever seen any of the Texas players on film.
I can understand forgiving the past and not looking back if you're in a romantic relationship. Who wants to think about their little angel having once sucked somebody else's johnson?
But football teams are different. Glaring weaknesses, tendencies and inabilities are something coaches need to be aware of.
I hate system coaches. Mackovic was a system coach. He took a team two years removed from the Cotton Bowl and a 10 win season and we had to sit on our hands through 1992 and 1993 while he hammered square pegs into round holes and waited for "his players" to run "his system."
When Mack Brown was successful it was because he was adaptable enough to build his schemes around his talent - running with Ricky, Benson and Young, while passing with Major, Simms and Colt.
Ironically, it was when he stopped doing that in 2010 and insisted on smash mouth football with spread players that everything came unglued.
I could harp all day about how Herman seems to be putting the wrong people in the wrong schemes but I'll just say two things.
1. Forcing a power spread with QB runs on Buechele is like ruining Major Applewhite by putting him in offense better suited for Vince Young than one better suited for Applewhite.
Is anybody surprised he's injured this week?
2. As Charlie Strong learned the hard way, you can't have our DL contain blocks and leave it to the LBers to make the tackles. You have to cut the DL loose, let it penetrate and create havoc.
Last year if Texas did anything right on D, they penetrated to get sacks and TFLs.
So this year we start off the season against the crappiest OL in the B1G and what happens? We get exposed.
It's just pitiful to see the hubris of a coaching staff imposing its preferences in opposition to a team's abilities. I honestly hoped we'd see good, smart, better coaching this year.